The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　The audience and the contestants who were focused on this also learned "who is who".

　Making sure everyone knows "who is who" is not a simple matter.

　One of the purposes of this year's college competition schedule is to let everyone know "who is who".

　This is something that must be done in the first Academy Championship. Everyone must know "who is who." Only then can the Academy Championship continue for a long time.

　However, these are things that the organizers or the Magic Alliance need to consider.

　As a competitor, all you need to know is this: the real battle of wits has begun!

　In classrooms.

　After presiding over the entrance, Professor Sylph said a few words of encouragement and then left.

　The core educational philosophy of St. Mary's College is to empower students with autonomy.

　Self-learning ability, self-development ability, and the ability to handle any task independently.

　In this type of competition, professors at most act as cheerleaders or human encyclopedias.

　Moreover, so many sixth-grade students are participating in this third round of the competition.

　The college education is progressive, and by the sixth year, most students have already developed the ability to stand on their own.

　And these top-performing students often possess exceptional leadership skills.

　Therefore, there is absolutely no need for professors to participate.

　After Professor Sylph left, the atmosphere in the classroom became even more lively.

　There were a total of 24 contestants, divided into 12 inside and 12 outside, sitting in two circles.

　The six main competitors in the lower grades are Darkdimon, Emma Metis, Saraswati, Witgold, Diana Gretbay, and Aurora Montilfali. The six main competitors in the upper grades are Pandora Doragon, Gina Grant, Shrek Holmes, Eluri Clarissa, Winnieskadi, and Marscare.

　In a place where students from different grades are mixed, the younger students generally don't make much noise.

　But this time is an exception.

　Dacdimon Nature

　And so he became the most influential person under Pandora.

　This wasn't because he was a professor. It was earned through sheer hard work and fighting.

　His victory over Noah Sharp in the Academy Cup is the reason he's in second place.

　Although he had absolutely no interest in the so-called "second place".

　That being said, after Professor Sylph left, it was Emma, ​​a third-year student, who stepped forward to present the data.

　She wrote the rules for the third round on the blackboard, and then tallied the starting scores of each college's contestants, which was the number of badges they had.

　In the third round of the points competition, each of the twelve contestants from each college starts with three points, which is equivalent to three badges.

　However, the organizers will issue badges to the contestants from each college based on their scores in the first two rounds.

　If St. Mary's College scores a total of 72 points, and these are distributed equally among the twelve main contestants, each contestant will receive an additional six badges.

　A quick calculation shows that every player from St. Mary's Academy starts with nine badges!

　Final statistics:

　St. Marian Academy: 9 badges per student. Ocean Magic Academy: 5 badges per student. Sky Magic Academy: 5 badges per student. Holy Mystic Academy: 4 badges per student. War Totem Academy: 4 badges per student. Kingdom Royal Academy: 4 badges per student. Elf Magic Academy: 4 badges per student. Public Magic Academy: 0 badges per student. Total badges: 420.

　"When the competition begins, there will be blue and red restaurants set up in the venue."

　"The red restaurant represents elimination, while the blue restaurant is the safe zone." "When a duelist has nine or more badges, they are eligible to enter the blue restaurant."

　"Once we get into the Blue Restaurant, we can safely get through the first day of the competition." "So my suggestion is to escort a few of the lower grades into the Blue Restaurant at the beginning of the competition."

　Senior Pandora sat in the head seat, her gaze sweeping coldly over the lower grades' area.

　She automatically categorized several students in the lower grades as "prey." Distinguishing between hunter and prey was key to winning the competition.

　Although she didn't think her side had any chance of losing at all, Pandora was still analyzing the situation rationally.

　However, those she automatically categorized as "prey" were not happy. Emma obeyed orders in front of the blackboard, and although she considered herself "prey," she only frowned slightly.

　Sarah's pride was stirred by that glance, but she just silently thought to herself, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river."

　Diana's gaze remained fixed on the only serving of pastry on the table, completely unaware of what was happening.

　Witt once admired his senior, but that feeling faded after he recognized Ophelia Brad.

　The reason is that he didn't like Pandora, but only his mother's shadow.

　As for now, besides feeling unwilling, all I can do is grit my teeth and resolve to score more points.

　"Wait, why are you staring at me? I'm not prey!" Marscare suddenly shouted.

Chapter 1287 No tactics are the best tactics (4k)

　Despite Mars Carey's loud shouts, no one paid him any attention. His performance in last weekend's game wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't great either.

　After the "dark horse halo" faded, he suddenly had far fewer "labels" to rely on, and compared to those senior students, he no longer felt any advantage.

　Even though he still has room for improvement, his current performance is indeed the worst among the six main contestants, and it seems that no one can refute the claim that he is being regarded as "prey".

　Furthermore, the one who sees him as "prey" is the absolute "hunter," and he can only accept it.

　Just then, he suddenly noticed someone watching him, and turned his head, whereupon he met Witt's gaze.

　In that instant, the two felt a sudden sense of camaraderie. Perhaps this was the empathy between prey!

　Regardless of the feelings of the "prey," the discussion continues.

　Pandora's suggestion was very objective, and it was the first thought that came to everyone present after they understood the rules.

　In the third round of the college championship, upon closer inspection, there are only two points to pay attention to.

　The first objective is to seize as many badges as possible from players from other colleges. The second objective is to protect the badges of players from being taken away from their own college. In this competition format, the vast majority of lower-grade players naturally become the "prey."

　These prey are all beings that need protection.

　Each student at St. Mary's Academy possesses nine badges. If targeted by upperclassmen who launch a series of duels in a tag-team format, they will be completely wiped out in no time.

　Even on the first day of the competition.

　The contestants who have just been challenged have a 30-minute immunity period during which they have the right to refuse the duel.

　It can only last for four hours at most.

　Once all the badges in a player's hand are taken away, the player will be sent to the Red Restaurant and eliminated from the competition.

　Therefore, if we want to keep the badges in the hands of the lower grades, it is necessary to assign people to protect them.

　In the third round of the points competition, there are only two ways to protect him. The first is that when upperclassmen from other colleges come to catch up, the upperclassmen on this side will initiate a duel beforehand, dragging him into the duel arena.

　The second method involves enticing lower-year students from other colleges to challenge these lower-year students to duels, thus granting them a 30-minute immunity period after the duel.

　some of.

　The first method is limited by the number and strength of the upperclassmen. Moreover, it is impossible for the strong upperclassmen to stay by the lowerclassmen's side indefinitely.

　If they want to earn more badges, they must constantly seek out targets and challenge them to duels.

　Because there is no limit to the number or interval of duels, a person can initiate any number of duels as long as they can find a target.

　However, if the target is within the exemption period, they can choose to refuse. Then, they will fall into the predicament of "too many monks and too little porridge".

　Therefore, the "hunter" must act quickly in order to capture more "prey".

　Let alone staying by the younger students' side the whole time, even staying for a moment longer would be a loss.

　The second method, regardless of whether it can induce success, requires winning the battle even if it succeeds.

　Although the younger students had their share of wins and losses, they were generally on the same level, and there was no guarantee of victory.

　If you can guarantee a 100% win rate, then you're not "prey".

　Therefore, the second method is very difficult to implement and carries risks, so it is not actually applicable.

　Thanks to the advantage they gained in the first two rounds, the players from St. Mary's Academy were in a safe position from the very beginning.

　However, after exiting the athletes' passage, if you want to enter the blue restaurant (safe zone), you still need to walk through most of the venue.

　This route is where the "prey" are most vulnerable to attack.

　However, hunting and guarding cannot be done at the same time. The first people to intercept the "prey" must be the strong ones from the other academies, and there are risks involved in implementing the first method.

　"Therefore, my opinion is that it is better not to follow the rules."

　Shrek Holmes offered his objection.

　"It is a very foolish thing to give up one advantage in order to consolidate the other."

　"It's nothing more than a race to see who can hunt faster."

　"Don't focus on the prey, but look at the problem from the hunter's perspective. As long as you hunt fast enough, the total amount of food will keep increasing."

　“But we each have nine badges, which would have allowed us to enter the safe zone directly,” Gina Grant said casually.

　Shrek immediately said, "So, don't let your advantage become a burden. We don't need to take care of them. They can walk the path from the player tunnel exit to the Blue Restaurant on their own. Besides, you can't hide forever, and there's no safe zone on the second day."

　“I second that,” Mars Carey said, raising his hand. But no “hunter” cared about the “prey’s” opinion.

　“Senior Holmes is right.” Dark thought for a moment and finally spoke up. “You can’t hide forever. Besides, this tactic is completely contrary to our original intention in participating in the competition. Abandoning our original intention in pursuit of victory is not only wrong, but also completely unnecessary.”

　He looked up as he spoke.

　He glanced at Pandora, who said calmly, "Continue."

　Dark smiled and continued, "It's a law of the jungle; there's always prey beneath the prey. Even if our badges are taken by hunters, we can take them back from other prey. I think none of us want to just cower in the safe zone and wait around."

　As soon as he said this, Witgold immediately seconded it, and Sarah and the others also nodded slightly in agreement.

　Dark said, "Distinguishing between hunter and prey is indeed key to winning a competition. But a person's identity should not be limited to just hunter or prey. Each of us is both prey and hunter. This is the ecological setting that aligns with nature."

　In short, retreating is out of the question; even if they die, they'll die standing. Since St. Marian Academy won the first two rounds, there's no way they can fail in the third.

　Even if you lose a lot of points on the first day, you can win them back on the second day.

　As a professor, one should create space for students to freely express themselves.

　Oh, he's not a professor anymore.

　“Actually, what we really need to worry about is something else.” After everyone had discussed it for a while, Dark said, “Our college has an overwhelming number of badges, and we have performed too strongly in the first two rounds of the competition. This could easily lead to a coalition of other colleges.”

　One-on-one is not a problem.

　The worst-case scenario is one against seven. Hmm...

　With the Orcs and Elves as insurance, it's at most one against six, which is alright.

　“This is indeed a problem that needs attention,” said Pandora. “There are a total of 456 badges. We start with 108 badges and need to acquire 121 more to ensure victory.”

　“I see, that is indeed a problem.” Eluri Clarissa nodded. “Although the rules prohibit the transfer of badges, there are ways to do so if one really wants to. The bets will be deducted on the second day of the competition, and the transfer can be completed in just one duel. If they can gather all the badges from several houses in one place through this method, they can instantly create a behemoth.”

　Gina Grant said thoughtfully, "It seems we need to collect a total of 229 badges to ensure victory."

　"Two hundred and twenty-nine badges...that's quite a challenge," Shrek Holmes said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

　"The fighting spirit is burning!" Marscare exclaimed. The senior students suddenly became lively, eagerly discussing the topic. Dark opened his mouth, but seeing the enthusiastic atmosphere, he had to stop.

　What he really meant was that the other academies would unite to deal with St. Marian Academy. But that would only involve information sharing and having the strongest students from each academy take turns fighting against St. Marian Academy's contestants—that was all.

　Unexpectedly, Senior Pandora immediately connected this to the worst-case scenario. This is truly a case of one against seven!

　But in reality, those academy athletes could never actually do that. Even if they wanted to, their respective races and nations would not allow it.

　This year's college competition has long since become a significant international event. The participants represent themselves, as well as their respective countries. Anything too outrageous must ultimately be avoided.

　I think so.

　Regardless, the atmosphere of the discussion in the classroom gradually improved.

　It's clear that identifying a common enemy can indeed unite people. After that, they naturally began discussing the formidable abilities of the contestants from the other academies.

　But in the end, the conversation circled back to the very beginning. Shrek Holmes said, "They'll surely assume we'll escort the lower-years to the Blue Restaurant. In that case, why don't we play along and actually escort them?"

　"You were the one who said you wouldn't escort them, but you're the one who said you would escort them. What do you want?" A player on the bench couldn't help but complain.

　Shrek Holmes scratched the back of his head and said with a simple and honest expression, "Times have changed. Since our goal is to obtain more than half of the badges, it's pointless to target the weak. We'll have to face them all, regardless of their strength. So why not use the escort mission as an excuse to wait for them to come to us? That way we won't have to search for and chase them one by one."

　The actions are the same, but the purposes are different.